Financial blog WiseBread highlights a simple way to keep your passport secure and minimise the risk of losing the original.

Aside from clearing official security checkpoints and borders, you can usually present a photocopy when your passport is requested. A simple copy of the photo and signature page will do, as it contains all the information necessary for somebody checking your identity.

The reality is, the less you need to handle your passport in public, the less the chances are that your passport will go missing or get stolen. So whenever you can use a photocopy of your passport, you should.

It's much better to have the copy lost, stolen or damaged and be left with the original than it is to use the copy to try and replace the original while abroad. Read the full article at the link below for more tips, or check out our guide to internet use and travel where privacy isn't respected (including how to secure a digital copy of your passport).

This is exactly what i did when i was visiting Sri Lanka in the midst of a civil war a few years ago. I heard stories that passports could go missing whilst being inspected at random road blocks etc, so i carried around a photocopy. When questioned where my original was, i advised them that it was with the Indian embassy in town as i had applied for a visa. They were fine with this. I encountered over 20 checkpoints during my stay, and no one questioned it any further. Normally, not being able to produce ID, would get you detained.